Abuses In Juvenile Lockups Prompt Surprise Checks

June 23, 2004|By Rene Stutzman, Sentinel Staff Writer

The state agency that houses Florida's juvenile criminals on Tuesday announced a major reform intended to make the children it locks up safer: It will begin making surprise inspections at its facilities.

The new inspection teams will report directly to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice's new secretary, Anthony Schembri.

DJJ also announced that the company operating its most abuse-plagued facility -- Polk Youth Development Center in Polk City -- is abandoning its five-year contract and will turn the facility over to someone else in the next few months.

Child abuse and neglect are widespread problems at DJJ facilities. The Orlando Sentinel reported in April that the Florida Department of Children & Families had documented 661 confirmed cases since the agency was created in 1994.

The worst abuser was Polk Youth Development Center, also known as Polk Juvenile Offender Correctional Facility, where investigators had confirmed 57 cases since 1994.

Premier Behavioral Solutions Inc., a for-profit Coral Gables company, has been in charge of the facility since April 2003, and the bulk of the abuse happened before it arrived.

Still, the announcement was unexpected. Premier will walk away from roughly $35 million of a $50 million, five-year contract.

Premier Vice President Isa Diaz said the company is withdrawing voluntarily for financial reasons. It had hoped the state would come up with another $2.4 million annually to pay for emotional counseling and treatment for youths there. That money didn't come through.

DJJ spokesman Robbie Cunningham said Premier decided on its own to end the contract.

Polk will be the second major DJJ facility that Premier will leave this year.

In February, under pressure from the department, Premier gave up its contract to run the Florida Institute for Girls after workers broke the arms of two girls within a 10-day period and a Palm Beach County grand jury faulted the company for failing to adequately staff the maximum-security prison.

The wider change, though, is the announcement of surprise inspections.

For years, the department has given facilities 30 days' notice before sending in a team to perform an in-depth, annual review. That annual inspection will continue, and facilities will still get the advance notice. But now, a different crew may pop in unannounced at any time.

In the first such surprise inspections, teams last week went to two facilities operated by Premier: Everglades Youth Development Center and Southern Glades Youth Camp, both in Florida City.

The inspections turned up no revelations about abuse, but both found problems, including not enough job-training teachers. Premier will need to fix them within 15 days or face sanctions, the department said.

DJJ inspectors told a select legislative committee Feb. 18 in Tallahassee that the department used to conduct surprise inspections but switched to giving 30 days' notice because it was more convenient.

That gave facilities time to get all their paperwork together, said John Criswell, chief of the agency's quality-assurance, or inspection, division.

It also gave local administrators time to falsify records and clean up problems, he conceded.